Paving machines are commonly used to apply, spread and compact a paving, i.e., a mat of asphalt or other paving material, relatively evenly over a work surface. These machines are generally used in the construction of roads, parking lots and other areas. An asphalt paving machine generally includes a hopper for receiving asphalt material from a truck or material transfer vehicle, and a conveyor system for transferring the asphalt rearwardly from the hopper for discharge onto a roadbed. A screed plate smooths and compacts the asphalt material, ideally leaving behind a roadbed of uniform depth and smoothness.
In order to help achieve the desired uniform depth and smoothness, as well as to accommodate different desired roadbed configurations, a screed assembly may include a variety of screed sections and adjustments. These adjustments can be used to vary, for example, the thickness of the mat as well as the degree of any crown and the cross slopes of the same. To improve the asphalt compaction and spreading capability of the various screed sections, screed assemblies often utilize a tamping mechanism. The tamping mechanism may pre-compact the asphalt before the paving material passes underneath the screed plate. The tamping mechanism may include a tamper bar and a wear plate on each screed section. The tamper bar may pre-compact and feed the asphalt under the screed plate for effective spreading and further compacting on the paving surface. The wear plate may be found behind the tamper bar and may be mounted to a screed frame such that a bottom surface of the wear plate is substantially aligned with a bottom surface of the screed plate. The wear plate may be configured and positioned to act as a sacrificial plate between the tamper bar and the screed frame and screed plate, preventing damage to the screed frame and screed plate as the tamper bar reciprocates upward and downward relative to the wear plate during a tamping operation.
The wear plate minimizes wear and tear to the screed plate and the screed frame to which the wear bar is mounted. The wear plate, which is a replaceable component, is generally mounted to the screed frame such that a bottom surface of the wear plate is above the bottom edge of the screed plate. In other words, the wear plate maintains a height tolerance relative to the bottom (asphalt finishing surface) plane of the screed plate. Such a height tolerance is often desired to prevent the wear plate from protruding or otherwise extending beyond the bottom edge of the screed plate (and therefore the screed section) and, thus, leaving a pattern or marking on the paving surface as the associated screed section compacts and spreads the asphalt. Existing tamper bars and wear plates may experience accelerated wear as a result of limitations on the amount of tamper bar material present at an interface between a surface of the tamper bar that experiences the most reactionary force from the asphalt during a tamping operation and the asphalt that is being tamped, and on the amount of material present at an interface between the tamper bar and the wear plate.
The disclosed systems and methods are directed at least in part to overcoming the above disadvantages.